Buprenorphine and methadone are medications used for detoxification, short- and long-term maintenance treatment. Each agent has its relative advantages and disadvantages.

In terms of efficacy (i.e. treatment retention, mostly negative urine samples), high-dose buprenorphine (such as that commonly found with Subutex/Suboxone treatment; 8-16 mg typically) has been found to be superior to 20-40 mg of methadone per day (low dose) and equatable anywhere between 50-70 mg (moderate dose), to up to 100 mg (high dose) of methadone a day. In all cases, high-dose buprenorphine has been found to be far superior to placebo and an effective treatment for opioid addiction, with retention rates of 50% as a minimum. It is also worth noting that while methadone's effectiveness is generally thought to increase with dose, buprenorphine has a ceiling effect at 32 mg That is, while a methadone dose of 80 mg will likely be more effective than a methadone dose of 60 mg, a buprenorphine dose of 40 mg will not be more effective than a buprenorphine dose of 32 mg.

Buprenorphine sublingual tablets (Suboxone and Subutex for opioid addiction) have a long duration of action which may allow for dosing every two or three days, as tolerated by the patient, compared with the daily dosing (some patients receive twice daily dosing) required to prevent withdrawals with methadone. Once one has been taking a maintenance dose of methadone for some time, withdrawal effects do not begin in earnest until two to three days after the last dose taken. However, buprenorphine is generally taken by maintenance therapy patients daily. In the United States, following initial management, a patient is typically prescribed up to a one month supply for self-administration. It is often misunderstood that the patient has to receive other therapy in this situation, but the law simply states that the prescribing physician needs to be capable of referring the patient to other addiction treatment, such as psychotherapy or support groups.

Buprenorphine may be more convenient for some users because patients can be given a thirty day take home dose relatively soon after starting treatment, hence making treatment more convenient relative to those who need to visit a methadone dispensing facility daily. The facilities, which are regulated at the state and federal level in the US, initially are only permitted to allow patients to receive take home doses (to be self-administered at the appropriate time) on a day when the clinic is regularly closed or on a pre-scheduled holiday. It is only after a minimum of several months of compliance (i.e., proven sobriety, demonstration of being able to safely store the medication) that patients of methadone clinics in most countries are permitted regularly scheduled take home doses aside from the possible exceptions for weekends and holidays. Ultimately, American patients on methadone maintenance therapy are permitted a maximum of a one month supply of take home medication, much more than most buprenorphine patients get, and this is only permitted after a minimum of two years compliance. In the US state of Florida, patients cannot receive a month supply until five years of compliance. Most buprenorphine patients are not prescribed more than one month's worth of buprenorphine at a time. However, buprenorphine patients, as a rule, are able to get their one month supply much earlier in their use of the drug than methadone patients.

Buprenorphine as a maintenance treatment thereby offers an advantage of convenience over methadone. Buprenorphine patients are also generally not required to make daily office visits and are often very quickly permitted to obtain a one month prescription for the medication. Methadone patients in the United States who are not subject to additional strictures beyond the federal law regarding a patient's take-home supply also benefit in convenience. States with excessive regulation on methadone dispensation see professionals advocating for office-based methadone treatment, similar to the standard of office-based buprenorphine treatment. Such treatment with full opiate agonists is already available on a limited basis in the UK, and has been ever since heroin was made illegal, with an interruption of a few decades which occurred, likely under pressure from the United States, during the worldwide escalation of the War on Drugs which occurred during the 1960s and 1970's. In fact, in the UK a doctor may prescribe any opiate to a person, regardless of their complaint (excluding diamorphine and dipipanone for addiction, where they require a special licence from the Home Office). In practice, methadone is most often used, although morphine and heroin are also less frequently prescribed on a maintenance basis. The UK has a smaller number of opiate users, per capita, than the United States, which many attribute to the availability of full opiate agonist prescriptions to users, which reduces the amount of opiates sold illicitly and, in turn, the number of users of other drugs who encounter and begin using the opiates. Therefore, it could be argued that buprenorphine may not be as attractive a treatment option in the UK due to full opiate agonists such as heroin maintenance being an option for a small amount of addicts seeking treatment.

Buprenorphine may and is generally viewed to have a lower dependence-liability than methadone. In other words, withdrawal from buprenorphine is less difficult. Like methadone treatment, buprenorphine treatment can last anywhere from several days (for detoxification purposes) to eighteen months if patient and doctor both feel that is the best course of action. Additionally, the opinion of those in the medication assisted treatment field is generally shifting to longer-term treatment periods, which may last indefinitely, due to the anti-depressant effects opioids seem to have on some patients, as well as the high relapse potential among those patients discontinuing maintenance therapy. The choice of buprenorphine versus methadone in the mentioned situation (by the patient) is usually due to the benefits of the less-restrictive outpatient treatment; prescriptions for take-home doses for up to a month early versus the possibility of heavy restrictions in some states and frequent visits to the clinic and the possibility of the "stigma" of going to a methadone clinic as compared to making trips to a doctor's office. Buprenorphine is also significantly more expensive than methadone and this seems to add to its better reputation. Also, in some states, there is a long waiting list for admission to a methadone maintenance program versus those with the money to afford seeing an addiction specialist each month in addition to the cost of medication. In studies done methadone is considered more addicting physically and mentally.

The sometimes less-severe withdrawal effects may make it easier for some patients to discontinue use as compared with methadone, which is generally thought to be associated with a more severe and prolonged withdrawal. However, no evidence thus far exists that sustaining abstinence post-buprenorphine maintenance is any more likely than post-methadone maintenance.

Another issue of concern for patients considering beginning any maintenance therapy or switching from one maintenance therapy to another is the transition associated with this switch. Due to buprenorphine's high-affinity to opioid receptors in the brain, care needs to be taken when a patient is transitioning from one drug (i.e., heroin) or medication (i.e., methadone) to buprenorphine. Essentially, if an opioid-dependent patient is not in sufficient withdrawal, introduction of buprenorphine may precipitate withdrawal. In layman's terms, in a sufficient dose, buprenorphine "pushes" any other opioids off of the receptors, but is itself not always "strong enough" to counteract the withdrawal symptoms this causes. Thus, opioid-dependent patients, particularly those on methadone or another long-acting medication or drug should be thoroughly honest with their prescribing doctor about their drug use, particularly in the days immediately preceding their induction onto buprenorphine, whether for detoxification or maintenance. In contrast, the transition from buprenorphine or other opioids to methadone is generally easier, and any discomfort or side effects are more likely to be easily remedied with dose adjustments.

Buprenorphine, as a partial μ-opioid receptor agonist, has been claimed and is generally viewed to have a less euphoric effect compared to the full agonist methadone, and was therefore predicted less likely to be diverted to the black market (as reflected by its C–III status versus methadone's more restrictive C–II status in the USA), as well as that buprenorphine is generally accepted as having less potential for abuse than methadone. It is also worth noting that neither methadone nor buprenorphine are to cause euphoria when taken long-term at the appropriate dose. However, in at least one study in which opiate users who were currently not using were given buprenorphine, several other opioids, and placebo intramuscularly, subjects identified the drug they were injected with as heroin when it was actually buprenorphine.  This evidence tends to support the contentions of those who reject the notion that buprenorphine, when injected, is only marginally euphoric, or significantly less euphoric than other opiates.

It should be noted that, in an effort to prevent injection of the drug, the Suboxone formulation includes naloxone in addition to the buprenorphine. When naloxone is injected, it is supposed to precipitate opiate withdrawal and blocks the effects of any opiate. However, contrary to popular belief, since buprenorphine has such a high affinity (higher than naloxone), the naloxone does not affect the user even when injected.  The naloxone does not precipitate withdrawal or block the effect of the buprenorphine when taken sublingually. The Subutex formulation does not include naloxone, and therefore has a higher potential for injection abuse. However, Subutex is prescribed significantly less than Suboxone for just this reason. Methadone, on the other hand, is typically given to patients at clinics in a liquid solution, to which water is generally added. This makes injection difficult without evaporating the liquid and taking other measures. Therefore, injection of buprenorphine as found in the preparations provided to opiate users is simpler than injection of methadone, although data on the relative incidence is not currently available. Although methadone is generally not a drug of choice for opioid addicts due to its long-acting nature and relatively little euphoria associated with its use, especially when compared to other drugs of abuse such as heroin and Oxycodone, it is used by addicts to relieve withdrawal symptoms when their opiate of choice cannot be obtained. Most methadone bought from the black market is thought to be bought by already opioid-dependent persons attempting to circumvent the substance abuse treatment system and detoxify themselves with the methadone or simply by people who wish to use the drug recreationally, just as other opiates are used. In the US, buprenorphine is found far less often on the black market as compared to methadone. The vast majority of the methadone diverted to the black market is not diverted from methadone clinics for opioid dependent persons, but rather it is diverted by a minority of the people who receive prescription for methadone for pain.